Colin Firth has revealed he and Geoffrey Rush were careful not to become parodies of their characters in The King's Speech.

The Oscar-nominated actor plays George VI in Tom Hooper's critically acclaimed new film, while Geoffrey plays his unorthodox Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue, but Colin was keen they didn't play a stereotypical aristocrat and Aussie.

He said: "What we didn't want it to be is Crocodile Dundee meets 'snooty'.

"I think that would have been a very reductive and cheap way to go because there was a danger the joke was on that - the broad Australian and the repressed, stiff Brit - and I think there's a lot more nuance than that.

"But it is two men who are, relatively speaking, obscure, even though one is a member of the royal family. But he's the second son and the one in the shadows and not only because of a speech impediment but because of his shyness and his unwillingness to put himself forward."

Colin is already tipped to win an Oscar for his part in the film.

He said: "I don't know what is going to happen next year but the fact that people are talking [about awards] is a sign of how positively they have responded to this. There'd be no point in this if there's no audience and so people liking it I find irresistible.

"If somebody likes the work then thank you very much, I'll take praise from anybody."